{"id":3763,"date":"2008-09-25T21:55:00","date_gmt":"2008-09-26T03:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/09\/quarantine\/"},"modified":"2009-08-22T14:08:45","modified_gmt":"2009-08-22T20:08:45","slug":"quarantine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/09\/quarantine\/","title":{"rendered":"Quarantine"},"content":{"rendered":"

This column was written before C. de Baca <\/span>resigned earlier today<\/a>.<\/span> <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>By Carter Bundy<\/span><\/p>\n

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Fernando C. de Baca has been in New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> many decades longer than I\u2019ve been alive, much less lived here. In early 2002, shortly after AFSCME<\/a> successfully gutted Jeb Bush\u2019s<\/a> plan to turn Florida<\/st1:state>\u2019s government into a patronage system, I chose to move to New Mexico<\/st1:state> instead of taking a job in Maine<\/st1:state>, or staying in Florida<\/st1:state>, or moving back to D.C., Virginia<\/st1:state>, New York<\/st1:state><\/st1:place> or the West Coast.<\/p>\n

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Some of the major factors in my move were the sunshine, unparalleled moderate, four-season climate, the gorgeous mountains and the chance to play a role in an exciting gubernatorial race.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

When I got here, all those things were as I\u2019d hoped and more. But I found out there was something unique about New Mexico<\/st1:state>, unlike anywhere else in America<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>. And I loved it. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

More than diverse<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> is not only diverse, but there\u2019s a genuinely cool vibe about the diversity. Everyone riffs off everyone else\u2019s culture. It wasn\u2019t just the long-standing and clich\u00e9d tri-cultural environment. It was Asian American, African American, Italian American, all kinds of mixed-race and cross-cultural families, 10th generation and new immigrants, and, of course, the three largest commonly-identified cultures: Native, Hispanic and Anglo (each of which contains dozens of origins as well).<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Heck, the state salute — does any other state even have one? — is entirely premised on united cultures living in perfect friendship.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Somehow race is virtually never an issue here. Sure, there were a few Hispanics and Native Americans who got into a legitimate disagreement about the statue of Don Juan de O\u00f1ate<\/a>. Normally, though, no one even thinks much of race here, at least not compared to the rest of America<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>. New Mexico<\/st1:state> is the model for everything that America<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> should become in terms of diversity as other states join us in becoming majority minority. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not like LA, with resentments that seem to simmer just under the surface. It\u2019s not like some East Coast megalopolises, where ethnic neighborhoods seem fairly homogenous.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> is the real deal — it\u2019s the real American melting pot. When my friends back East or in California<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> ask why I like it so much, I try to explain the diversity and the coolness of it all. But even bringing it up seems so un-New Mexican, because embracing diversity is not conscious the way it might be in, say, the Bay Area. It\u2019s nothing intentional. It just is.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

That\u2019s what makes C. de Baca\u2019s outrageous comments so crappy — he (temporarily) shattered the \u201cjust is\u201d of New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>\u2019s melting pot. And no, not even my Republican friends are buying his excuse that he meant to talk about long-ago generations, or that the BBC reporter took his quote<\/a> out of context.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Mr. C. de Baca, I respect that you and your family have been here far longer than I have. But I\u2019ve seen enough of New Mexico<\/st1:state> to know that you don\u2019t speak for it or any significant number of European-Americans, at least not the areas in the Rio Grande<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> corridor that I\u2019ve come to know well.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

For being a true melting pot, New Mexico<\/st1:state> ranks number one in America<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>. Whoever is in second place is pretty far behind.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Politics aside<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The politics of it all seems to be a wash. On the Republican side, the candidates are smart enough to distance themselves, but the Bernalillo County GOP leadership rallied around C. de Baca. Each speaks for itself.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

In obvious ways, this controversy hurts the GOP, but in another way, every day Republicans succeed in making the discussion about race instead of economics or Iraq<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>, it hurts Dems.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

I almost didn\u2019t write this column because this really is one of those times where even addressing it at all gives it more attention and value than it\u2019s worth. And I\u2019m probably not doing much to help the candidates or causes I believe in, and I\u2019m even contributing to the distraction.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

But New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> has a long history of people coming here to avoid diseases like tuberculosis. After living here for a few years, I\u2019ve come to realize that racism, even for the vast majority of New Mexican Republicans, is a disease generally reserved for the distant past or for other parts of the country. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

C. de Baca and the Bernalillo County Republican Party Executive Board aren\u2019t merely being racist, they\u2019re attacking a core value of a state that many of us love precisely for that core value. That value is worth defending even if it\u2019s a distraction.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

To Mr. C. de Baca and the Bernalillo County Republican Party Executive Board: New Mexico<\/st1:state> is the future of America<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>. You are a sad part of the past. You don\u2019t represent this great state, and you don\u2019t even deserve to bask in its rich, multicultural heritage, much less its current beautiful tapestry. Please, keep your disease to yourselves.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Bundy is the political and legislative director for AFSCME<\/a> in New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>. The opinions in his column are personal and do not necessarily reflect any official AFSCME position. You can learn more about him by clicking here<\/a>. Contact him at carterbundy@yahoo.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This column was written before C. de Baca resigned earlier today. By Carter Bundy Fernando C. de Baca has been in New Mexico many decades longer than I\u2019ve been alive, much less lived here. In early 2002, shortly after AFSCME successfully gutted Jeb Bush\u2019s plan to turn Florida\u2019s government into a patronage system, I chose […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bundy-columns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3763\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}